Come Little Children
by LoveMusicRain
Summary: I was listening to the song Come Little Children, and thought of this. My mind went to really dark places, and I started writing. Isabella and her classmates are lured into the woods by a beautiful voice. Do not read if you are sane. This story is messed up, and graphically violent in later chapters. Please don't leave any hateful reviews.
1. The Voice

**A/N: This is not like anything else I've written. This story is from the darkest part of my mind, so please don't read this if you are normal. It is violent, kind of inappropriate, and fundamentally messed up. You have been warned.**

Lauren tripped Isabella on her way out of the schoolhouse. Her bag fell, and her pencils and paper spilled onto the dirt road. They laughed and walked away, swishing their hips in a way that would get them switched at home. Lauren and Jessica were always mean to Isabella because while she was good and got to sit at the front of the room, they were often being punished and had to sit at the back of the room where it was cold. As they walked home, it got darker. It was closer to winter, and twilight came earlier than before. It was just a normal day, but it was also the day she heard the voice that would change her life forever.

The voice was sweetly wrapped around his dangerous words, spinning through the air and dulling her senses to everything except... _him._ _ **"Come little children, I'll take thee away...into a land of enchantment. Come little children, the time's come to play, here in my garden of shadows."**_ The other girls ran, laughing joyfully, into the woods, but Isabella stopped for a moment. She wasn't a naughty girl, and she remembered every lesson and warning that Papa had given her. _**"Follow, sweet children, I'll show thee the way..."**_ she turned and ran as fast as she could into the forest.

She was at the back of the line when they reached the castle. The warm smell of a feast wafted alluringly in the cold October air.

Once inside, they found the dining hall almost immediately. Roasted turkeys, vines of grapes, sparkling crystal glasses of apple cider, and huge beautiful cakes decorated a long table. The entire room was lit by a giant, beautiful chandelier. Her mouth watered. Everyone ran to the table and began stuffing their faces. Isabella stopped for a moment... could the food be poisoned? Her stomach growled and she looked to the other girls eating. She gave up then and sat down at a corner spot and put a leg of turkey, and a handful of grapes on her fancy plate. Surely being poisoned was better than starving to death. It all looked so strange to Isabella, who so rarely had the food to eat off of such utensils.

She lifted her glass to her lips and took a sip of it. Even the wealthy would not have tasted such delicious cider. It was crisp, and sweet, and perfectly spiced. She gently cut small pieces of meat on her plate and ate them, trying not to act like the starving child she was. Everything was so amazing, but there was one thing missing: the voice. The beautiful, raspy, voice that had sang for her to follow.

When he walked in, the room became silent. It was the automatic feeling of dread and fascination that thickened in the air like someone could choke on it. It was the way the candles in the chandelier almost flickered out, until they remembered who they were working for.

"Hello," he said quietly, but there was more power in that one word than in the speeches of any lord.

"Hi, Mister," one brave girl spoke up. "Thank you for the food."

"You're quite welcome, Miss Katie." The girl gasped, and Isabella narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"I'm Edward," he announced to the dumbfounded girls. All the girls mumbled their greetings and thanks. Isabella stared at his face, and didn't feel that guilty because he was looking at everyone else and she probably wouldn't get caught. Suddenly, however, his eyes met her's in disbelief. She resisted the urge to duck her head to hide behind her hair, and looked into his pretty gold eyes.

"What's your name, dear?" The other girls sighed with envy. "Oh, Isabella, forgive me," he acted as if he had just remembered. She listened, baffled, as he moved along the line, saying everyone's names as if they were old friends. The strangest part, though, was that no one else was afraid.

After Edward had done this, he sat down in a gold and black throne at the front of the room, sipping his dark wine and watching the girls with a funny look in his eyes. Everyone else chattered joyfully about how handsome, and how polite, and how wealthy he was, but Isabella just ate her food, and looked around with wide eyes.

That night they were each directed to a different room, more elegant than they had seen in their lives. Isabella looked around her room with wide eyes. The walls were crimson and the covers on her bed were black silk. The posts of her four-poster bed were made of dark cherry wood. Mama and Papa would be very worried that she was gone. She considered going to bed then, she was suddenly quite tired, but instead determined she would find out what Edward was, and why he had put a spell on her classmates.

Isabella crept down the hallway, looking at the strange artwork that filled the huge gold frames on the wall. Paintings of beautiful mermaids making wanton faces led to ships at sea that crashed into jagged rocks and then to mermaids with ugly faces swarming the bloody water. She shuddered as she recalled the legends of these creatures. _Sirens,_ she remembered, walking a little faster. She tried not to look at the paintings after that.

She wandered for a long time. _Left_ , she suddenly heard as if a beautiful, raspy voice had spoken into her ear. She turned around, gasping, but there was no one there. Slowly, she turned back around and looked left. There was a tall set of french doors. She went up to them and nervously put her hands on the doors. Before she even pushed, the doors opened, creaking loudly. She pulled her hands back, startled.

Looking in, she saw that the room she had found was indeed a library. She tentatively walked inside. The bookshelves were so tall... much taller than the ones at the school. She tried to think of what creatures she had learned about from her Papa's crazy friend Billy. There were Sirens, of course, but those were only women, and she wasn't in a ship.

She walked through the library, unsure where to start. _'Creatures' begins with 'C',_ she thought, looking to the sides of the tall shelves for the letters. _There are no letters on the shelves, but surely C is near the front._ She looked at the titles of the books, always putting them back when they weren't what she was looking for.

She had nearly given up when a black book with gold trim caught her eye. She approached it and pulled it down. It was really heavy, and cold to the touch. She opened it, ignoring the sting in her hand the brief touch delivered. _Creatures of the Night,_ it read. She shivered, and then turned the page.

That night Edward went to the library and gently picked the sleeping girl up. "A curious one," he sighed happily. "You'll like it here, inquisitive little kitten."


	2. The Dream

Isabella looked around her. Everything was on fire. Where was she? _Turn around,_ Edward said in her mind. She did, and saw the dark castle looming on the mountain behind her. _Is this..._ _ **was**_ _this... the forest?_ Only blackened stubs remained of the trees. The air was uncomfortably humid, and the sky was dark with rainclouds. She looked up. _I hope it rains and puts out the fire,_ she thought. Just then, the sky rumbled with thunder and it started raining.

She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sky. She wanted the rain to cool her flushed face. As the liquid touched her face, she knew something was wrong. It was warm. She smelled it before she saw it.

Blood. She gasped and became dizzy. As the world spun around her she fell down and the scene changed. Blood no longer dripped from the sky, but rather rose from the ground. It began pooling underneath her and she felt that she was on stone. She shakily stood up, and tried to see where she was, but it was completely dark. She walked around with her arms in front of her- her feet were now sloshing in the liquid underneath her. She found the wall and began walking along it, feeling for a door. She got to a corner and turned, ignoring the sinking dread that replaced her sickness. It was an even shorter walk to the next corner.

The blood was to her knees now, and it was difficult to walk through. She sped up and found another corner. _There's no way out!_ She kept running, splashing everywhere. It had reached her stomach now. Still, she felt no exit. It rose to her chest, and she began crying. Her feet couldn't even touch the ground. She was literally swimming in blood. She rose with it, until the top of her head touched stone. _NO!_ It was still rising. It almost covered her mouth. She tilted her head back, and as it almost covered her lips she inhaled one last time.

She woke up, gasping. She lifted her hand to her face. It was just as dry, and as pale as usual. She sighed. _Oh, goodness! I fell asleep in the library!_ she realized. _How did I get back here?_ The cool silk felt amazing after nearly drowning in the warm blood.

She slipped one long skinny leg out to touch the smooth floor. She could still feel the blood between her toes, but shook off the bad dream and got out of bed.

She walked over to the wardrobe opposite her bed. Opening the doors, she saw a dark purple dress. _I suppose Edward placed an outfit for everyone in their rooms._

She started to undress when she realized she wasn't in her school clothes from the day before. _What if Edward brought me back from the library... and changed my clothes!_ She was mortified. _He wouldn't have! No, I'm sure he has some servant women who put me in this nightgown._

She pretended she hadn't thought of it and put on the dress. Papa would not approve of the neckline, as it went low and nearly to the shoulders, but Isabella loved it anyway. Purple was such a beautiful color. She had once asked for a purple ribbon for her hair, and that was the day Mama had to have a talk with her about how they couldn't buy pretty things or else they would be hungry. She did a little twirl in front of the tall gilt-framed mirror next to the wardrobe, before leaving the room.

She heard chatter from down the hall and followed it. She approached the door it came from cautiously, and tried to slip in unnoticed.

"Isabella!" Jessica called immediately. "Come play with us!" Isabella blinked in surprise and went to the girls, hoping it wasn't a trick.

It was. The moment she was near Jessica hissed, "You'd better not talk to him! We've already decided he's going to marry me, and if you don't get in my way, I might let you stay with them," she pointed to the other girls, "as servants in the castle when I'm his wife."

"He's already asked for your hand?" Isabella asked, shocked. They had only met yesterday!

Jessica's face flushed with anger and embarrassment. "Not yet, but no one else is to accept it if he offers. If you do, I'll hate you even more."

"I didn't want to play with you anyway," Isabella said, walking away. She wasn't sure if she felt like laughing or crying. Edward wasn't going to ask for anyone's hand in marriage, least of all her's.

Suddenly she felt his presence. Everyone looked up as Edward strode into the room. He looked slightly angry, and Isabella flinched a little.

"My house is a place of very few rules, however, if you treat my special guest with cruelty, you will not be welcome here much longer." His voice was cold, and Jessica gasped.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Edward! Isabella can play with us! Honest!" the girls all insisted.

Isabella looked down, blushing. Edward didn't need to defend her like that. "Thank you," she said quietly.

She went over to the girls and sat down. They all made room for her. They were playing with dolls. "This one's yours." Katie said, handing her a doll. Isabella looked down at it and blinked. "It was Jessica's idea to hide it from you."

"Thank you, Katie." The doll had long brown hair that reached her waist and brown eyes and a purple dress on her pale, skinny body. _It's me..._ She looked around at everyone else's. Jessica's doll had blue eyes and dark brown, curly hair, and a pink dress just like Jessica. Everyone's doll looked like them.

Isabella turned back around, expecting Edward to say something, but he was gone, and the suddenly kind girls didn't seem to notice his absence at all.

Isabella hadn't really played much, and she was sure she wasn't very good at it, but the girls weren't making fun of her. With the look in their eyes, she wasn't sure the girls were even there.

They went through the day laughing and playing and eating like princesses. Isabella was weirded out by the sudden amiability of her classmates, but wasn't about to complain about it! Even though she suspected it wasn't really their decision to be nice to her, she couldn't help but feel a little haughty.

Eventually they began to smell dinner and walked in the direction of the dining hall. Isabella wondered where Edward was. They hadn't seen him for some time. "We should find Edward first," she said impulsively. Whatever Edward had done to their minds, it might make them actually listen to her.

"Good idea, Isabella!" they all murmured in appreciative agreement. Though she didn't really know where she was going, she wandered to a distant part of the castle. It was far away from where they were supposed to be, and eventually she considered turning around.

Suddenly a high pitched shriek of terror echoed loudly in the corridor. Everyone went towards the sound, anxiety nearly waking a few of them up, and then they met Edward in the hallway. All the apprehension left their eyes like it had drained right out of them. In it's place was the gossipy, giggly mood they had before.

"Girls, go to the dining hall. There's nothing to see here," Edward insisted, blocking the hallway. The other girls immediately turned around without question, leaving Isabella alone in the hallway, facing Edward. As he took a drink of his wine, his eyes flashed red, and then he blinked and they returned to gold. Isabella shuddered. _It probably isn't wine._

"What... who...?" Her eyes filled up with tears. Edward raised an eyebrow.

"Is there a problem, Isabella?"

She straightened up. "Not at all. What's for dinner today?"

"Pork roast, vegetables, and pastries."

"Thank you, Mr. Edward." She turned away, resisting the urge to run.

She tried not to feel sick as she ate the extravagant meal. She had been right. Edward was going to kill them all.

The moment she was out of sight, Edward laughed. Isabella was a terrible actress.


	3. Keep Me, How?

**A/N: I don't know how many of you read my other works, but I have a new one dedicated entirely to recommended one-shots. The problem is, no one has recommended anything yet. Please check it out. ^.^  
Hope you like the update!**

She was in the dark room again. _Maybe there's an exit on the ceiling that I had no time to look for yesterday._ She felt the wall beside her and stuck her fingers in between the stones, where much of the mortar had eroded. She stuck her toes in at the bottom and pulled herself up. There wasn't much to hold onto. Her hands were shaking as she pulled herself up again and again. Feeling around the ceiling, she felt a wet rope hanging from it limply. She tugged it a little and heard stones coming lose from above her. She pressed as close to the wall as she could, bracing herself for head impact, but luckily the stones only grazed her back.

Eventually she strained to get a better footing in the stones that were beginning to crumble under her weight. She reached up to the ceiling where the stones had fallen through and felt cool air moving through her fingertips. Her heart pounded with excitement. Escape was so close.

She reached over to try and clutch the outside of the hole she'd inadvertently created. It was slippery, hard to grasp. Her heart was in her throat as she realized she had to jump to get her other hand over. Biting back a scream, she swung out and grabbed the edge. Her body dangled helplessly and she realized that her hands were slipping. _NO!_ She desperately grasped at the moss growing outside, but it tore beneath her fingers. The blood rising from beneath her reached her ankles, and seemed to be pulling her farther down.

"Help," she said weakly, her voice breaking. She wanted to laugh at herself, but began crying instead. There was no one to help her. She was all alone. The blood pulled down on her from the knees now, and the stone she was slipping off of began to crumble. "Help me."

The chilly air suddenly became colder, and ice cold hands wrapped around her wrists. It was difficult to see in the dark, but Isabella knew exactly who it was. Suddenly she was moving, being lifted up, out of the hole, and out of the blood… though the wetness under her feet was questionable.

It took a minute for her heart to slow. "Thank you," she exhaled, though she still couldn't see him in the darkness.

"You're welcome." His voice was smooth, like melted chocolate. "Though it may be a bit early for your thanks." She laughed; a shaky, breathless sound. She already knew that.

Even though her human eyes couldn't see it in the darkness, he cracked a smile.

"Someday this won't be so scary anymore," he said soothingly. She didn't know what to say to that. _Yes, because I'll be dead_ , she couldn't help but think, but she was still grateful to him for lifting her out of the blood.

"I like you," he whispered. "I want to keep you." He was a lot closer now. She shivered, but found herself involuntarily leaning towards the sound of his voice.

"Keep me, how?" she whispered back.

"It was an errant thought." His voice became as cold as his skin. "Stay out of trouble, will you? I need you alive for this to work."

 _For_ what _to work?_ But she didn't ask. "I will." She was suddenly overcome with sadness. She could feel an end coming.

"Thank you," she said once more, waving a farewell as dust whipped up around her and she became dizzy. Suddenly, behind her closed eyelids she saw light.

She opened them tentatively, and found herself in her large, too-comfortable bed.

 _What a dream._ She placed a hand over her racing heart. She got up and went to the wardrobe, where she found a pretty, lacy, violet-colored dress. She frowned at her hair in the full-length mirror. She was a disgrace to such a dress, the least she could do was make herself presentable. She looked on top of the desk. Had there been a hairbrush there before? She picked it up and brushed through all the knots and tangles in her hair. _I want to be the prettiest!_ Isabella was surprised by the sudden surge of jealousy. She started twisting her hair into a braid. Surely it couldn't be that difficult!

For a long time, she struggled with her hair. Her mom always put it in a bun for school, but she'd seen Lauren with all manners of elaborate hairstyles. Yet, she couldn't master a simple braid!

Eventually she heard a knock on the door. "Isabella?" called Jessica, peeking into the room. "Edward told me to come and get you... is that a braid?" she broke off suddenly, laughing. "What on earth are you doing to your hair?"

"Nothing," Isabella said, fighting back tears. Jessica began walking away and Isabella tore her fingers through the braid. It hurt a lot, and some strands of her hair came out with her fingers, but it distracted her from the way she felt.

She shuffled her way downstairs behind an impatient Jessica. Entering the dining hall, she realized every eye was on her. She shifted uncomfortably under the scrutinizing gazes of her classmates. To her surprise, everyone made room for her at the table.

"Sit by me!"

"No, sit by me!"

"I'll... ah... just sit here," Isabella said, sitting down randomly. She looked over the table. There were silver platters on the table, but no one had any food on their plates. _Were they waiting for me?_ she thought in mortification.

Suddenly the lids of the platters disappeared, revealing warm stacks of food. Pastries made with cheese or fruit, ham coated with brown sugar, sweet corn bread sweetened with sorghum and butter.

They all stacked food onto their plates and ate, chattering. However, it became silent as Edward approached the table.

"May I sit between you... Isabella, Katie?"

"Yes," Isabella said, moving to the right.

"Of course, Mr. Edward," Katie said, moving to the left.

"Thank you. How are you enjoying your stay here?" He looked only at Isabella while he spoke.

"Very much, Mr. Edward. Thank you." _Perhaps I should be more polite to him._

"Please, call me Edward."

"Okay... Edward."

"I'm enjoying it," Katie's voice sounded small, like she was unsure whether or not to answer. Edward's smile dazzled them for a moment.

"I'm glad."

Isabella had lost the little appetite she had. She used her silver fork to push the food around on her plate.

"Are you going to eat, Isabella?" She was unused to being noticed so closely.

"Of course, thank you," she said, scooping a bite of cornbread into her mouth. She shouldn't waste her food, anyway.

"What are you going to do, today?"

"I don't know. Play?" It sounded strange in her mouth. She didn't know how to play.

"You are free to do anything you like, Isabella."

"Anything at all?"

"Yes."

"Does that extend to... reading?" she asked, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. He chuckled.

"Yes. You needn't sneak around anymore. I know everything that happens in this castle."

The other girls gasped. Isabella had been sneaking around? When Mr. Edward had been so kind to them? He _must_ like her if he wasn't angry. A few murmurs began, but they hushed eachother. Edward was still with them. Isabella laughed a little too, relieved. Edward might be a monster, but at least he had a sense of humor.

"What kind of books do you like to read, Isabella?"

"All kinds." Edward frowned at her vague answer.

Seeing this, Isabella elaborated, uncomfortable that her classmates were hanging onto her every word.

"I like to read about love," she said quietly. "Love for learning, or friendship... or a man."

He smiled at this, but Isabella didn't know why.

"What's your favorite?" he asked.

"Wuthering Heights."

"Hmm."

Why was he asking her so many useless questions? He was going to drink her blood, so why did he pretend to care about her favorite book?

Everyone had finished eating, and Isabella noticed that Jessica looked upset. Though she didn't really care, she knew it was because Edward was giving her special attention. That made her uncomfortable. _You can't trust your mind around him!_ she thought, but couldn't help but admit it she felt it was something else.

The girls went off to play, and Isabella went to the library to read. However even this couldn't quite keep the thoughts away. _What does he plan for me?_


End file.
